No. 5 Cardinals Edge No. 6 Iowa 3-2 in OT Thriller

Sunday, October 20

LOUISVILLE, KY

1:00 p.m.

University of Louisville

(13-2)

IOWA

(11-4)

IOWA

LOU

Photo by: Karthik Kalvakuri | Louisville Athletics

October 20, 2019 | Field Hockey

Box Score Louisville 3 - Iowa 2 (OT)Justine Sowry Interview Madison Walsh Interview Carter Ayars Interview Photo Gallery

Madison Walsh's goal with four seconds left in OT lifts Cards to 3-2 win against Iowa

By: Lori Harmon

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Junior Madison Walsh's goal with four seconds left in overtime lifted the fifth-ranked University of Louisville field hockey team to a 3-2 win over No. 6 Iowa Sunday afternoon at Trager Stadium. The Cardinals improve to 13-2 on the season while the Hawkeyes drop to 11-4.

With the score tied a 2-2 and under 15 seconds remaining on the clock, Ayars sent a pass across the field to junior Alli Bitting who was making her way down the left sideline. The junior directed the ball toward the circle where it glanced off of a defender's stick, but Walsh was there to tap it into the cage past Iowa goalkeeper Leslie Speight for the game-winning goal.

"It felt like championship Sunday," said UofL head coach Justine Sowry. "Iowa is a great team... It was a massive game – they are well-coached and have some fantastic players. To be honest, they probably played better for longer periods of time, but we just stuck in there and kept grinding. And to come back very late at the very end of the game, and put one in the cage and then in overtime – that's certainly not how we planned one of our set pieces, but again, we adjusted and adapted. But for me it was the grittiest performance that we've played. Certainly we can play better, but I'm happy with the result."

The top-10 matchup lived up to its billing as the teams traded leads three times with senior Carter Ayars tying the game after the Cards earned a penalty corner as time expired at the end of regulation.

In the final 48 seconds of regulation, Sowry lifted goalkeeper Hollyn Barr in favor of an extra field player. With 11 seconds on the clock, Louisville worked the ball down the left side of the field from its own defensive 25-yard line with a pass from senior Bethany Russ to freshman Minna Tremonti who sent a feed into the circle where freshman Margot Lawn was able to earn a corner in the as time expired.

Ayars got the corner started and junior Meghan Schneider provided the stop for Russ who powered a shot toward the cage where Ayars was able to push the ball in off of Speight's stick to send the game into overtime.

The game entered a 7v7 sudden-victory overtime period with the score knotted at 2-2. Iowa had an early scoring opportunity in the extra period, earning a penalty corner in the third minute, but Murphy's shot hit the post and the Cardinals regained possession.

After Louisville came up empty on its own penalty corner attempt, Iowa quickly transitioned with a fast break down to it its attacking circle, but Barr came out to the middle of the circle to take the ball off of Megan Conroy's stick and send it back down the field and keep the score knotted at 2-2.

The team continued to battle through the 10-minute overtime period until the Cardinals prevailed with Walsh's seventh goal of the season.

In the game, Iowa (11-4) outshot Louisville 15-11 with an 11-8 advantage in shots on goal while the Cards held the penalty corner advantage 8-3. Goalkeeper Hollyn Barr had nine saves for the Cards and Leslie Speight collected five stops for Iowa.

The teams battled through a scoreless first quarter with each squad firing off two shots and Louisville owning a 2-1 edge in penalty corners.

The Cardinals broke through in the second minute of the second quarter when junior Mercedes Pastor received a pass from freshman Mattie Tabor and maneuvered through the Hawkeye defense before rifling a shot into the right corner of the cage for her eighth goal of the season.

Iowa answered with under three minutes left in the second quarter. Anthe Nijziel sent a long ball from about 40 yards toward the circle and Maddy Murphy was able redirect it past Louisville goalkeeper Hollyn Barr to even the score at 1-1.

The Hawkeyes kept the momentum in the second half with a third-quarter penalty corner goal from Lokke Stribos which put Iowa on top 2-1 until the closing seconds of regulation.

"I'm so proud of this team," said Walsh. "Every single individual works so hard and it shows. We fight to the very end – it was an awesome team win. Credit to Iowa they are a really good team, but we were able to keep up and get a very big regional win"